Karrigan Plays Down the FaZe Clan Hype

The in-game leader for FaZe Clan, Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen, has played down the hype around his team, recognizing that they haven’t been properly tested yet.

FaZe Clan is a mixed European team that is, at the time of writing, ranked 4th in the world by HLTV. The team has had high expectations placed upon them after they dominated the $250,000 tournament of ESL One New York in September, without losing a single map.

FaZe’s roster is considered to be one of the strongest in professional CS:GO, with many of its members having been considered the best player in the world, or currently on track to contend for the title.

The team is currently competing in the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, running from the 10th to the 13th of October, where they are facing some of the best teams in the world for a share of the $1,000,000 prize pool.

They were able to defeat EnVyUs in the semifinals and have now secured their place against the Danish team of North in the quarterfinals.

After their victory, esports news website, HLTV, interviewed karrigan and questioned him about his team’s form and expectations.

He was asked about the hype surrounding his team and their extraordinary performance at ESL One New York, and if it had made it harder to stay focused on improving. Karrigan replied that they were surprised teams allowed them to play on their favorite maps in New York, and now they will be more aware in future tournaments.

He said his team was aware they would not always be so lucky and did not allow themselves to become overconfident.

”We came into every veto quite surprised that we got to play Overpass, Mirage, Inferno with them, statistic wise, being very good for us. So we didn’t get to be contested on the other four maps in the map pool.”

”I think people hype us too much right now, let’s see when we play other teams how they are going to veto. Because they know our strong maps and which maps we have to work on. And working on them is what we have been doing for ELEAGUE. Other than that, I don’t think we have been overthinking or been overconfident about the New York win.”

Karrigan was then asked about how his team was feeling going up against North or Heroic in the semifinals of ELEAGUE, and he admitted they were confident, but recognized that they needed to step up their game from their matches against Envy or they will lose maps.

”I think that we don’t fear anyone. There is always the question if we can beat SK, I have never beaten Fallen in a BO3, so I think that is one of the teams we are happy to avoid, but of course, we also want to play the best team in the world.”

”So right now, I don’t really care who we face I still think we should win it with the form we are in and with the map pool we have. It’s probably going to be a hard match, the next one, since we played Heroic six times in seven days and North has been improving ever since before Malmö when they got valde. No matter who we face in the next round, we have to step up a little more, especially because, if we play the first map like we did today, we are probably going to lose it.”

FaZe Clan and North will face each other on the 12th of October at 22:30 BST (14:30 PST, 17:30 EST, 7:30 AEST). The winner will proceed to the grand final and have the opportunity to win the enormous $500,000 first place prize.